Fiction Practice, curated by Mariana Pestana, was a project based on 4 workshops hosted by Porto Design Biennale. Each workshop – while sharing the overall theme of design fiction – had its own group of workshop leaders, its own methodological approach, its own theoretical framework and its own terminologies. The identity aimed to highlight these differences through the use of evocative and unusual terms extracted from each of the the workshop descriptions. (As Wittgenstein writes ”The limits of our language are the limits of our world”, therefore, these terms could evoke other possible worlds). The terms were set in several typefaces encompassing a number of different type categories to symbolise the distinct approaches being explored.

Designed with Max Ryan
Photographs by Ines d’ Orey & Dinis Santos

To contextualise this project within 2019’s Porto Design Bienalle theme “Post Millenial Tension”, we took the scroll as a compositional approach and we used hashtags, a popular symbol and tool on online platforms frequented by 'millenials'. The scroll, being an extended roll of information, existed many centuries ago in papyrus form. However it has re-emerged and been re-contextualised through our everyday digital experiences, particularly with the use of smartphones.